Same here in Kentucky on Friday morning. Thank goodness for old hay piles for the young calves.
What really hurt was watching older pregnant cows walking over tromped up clay that had turned to stone overnight.
I know they're designed for the temps but I felt so bad for my herd a few mornings back that I let them into the bale storage pasture and let them hunker down between them. Icicles hanging from ears replaced by easy eating and a warm place for two days while the wind and snow died down. They were visibly disappointed after I tricked em back into their normal pastures with some sweet feed, they hung out at the gate for hours waiting for me to let them back in.
Well, Temps were only lows of -15F during night, but warmed up and misted but Temps dropped again and dumped a foot of snow. Much better than rain. And our cold is always a high humidity cold. Colder than dry cold temps.
That pic is amazing, @Jeanne - Simme Valley. We hit -12 wind chill after the rain/ice/snow but my girls didn't accumulate as much. I did feel bad for the ones with icicles on their eyes!
And their ears. They didn't act cold. Were not humped up at all. Calves were all tucked away in their shed until later in the day. Then, they were zipping all over. Love watching them buck and play.
IT is what you get used to. First, I am from Minnesota so minus 40 F is not unheard of. But many years ago, in Viet Nam it would get to 110 F. Then if we were out all night by morning, we would be zipping up our field jackets all the way and the temp was in the 80s. Also, in September here in Minnesota 30 degrees is cold. In January below zero is not bad unless a lot of wind. Just my thoughts farmguy
Mine looked the same Friday morning. We had 1/4" of freezing rain, then 3" of heavy sleet. Was hoping the one calf would lay in the barn, but it was covered in icicles too. Probably good they didn't go in there much, the barn collapsed from the weight of the ice the next morning.